The invention relates to a dispenser for liquid, gaseous, solid or preferably powdery media. The dispenser permits to be held and simultaneously actuated for discharge single-handedly. Furthermore, some or all of its components are partly or entirely fabricated from plastics or injection molding. The flowable medium may be conveyed by suction or inhalation. Thus the pharmaceutical active substance is inhaled or deposited on the nasal mucuous membrane.
An object of the invention is to avoid the drawbacks of known configurations. Another object is to provide a dispenser which is highly compact and of simple structure. A further object is to make the dispenser very handy and convenient to actuate. Still another object is to prevent inadvertent actuation and damage of the dispenser by axial or radial compressive stress. A still further object is to have the weight of the dispenser very low. Another object is to permit modest manufacture and assembly of the dispenser.
According to the invention an outer guide shell freely protruding in the flow direction is readily accessible from without and serves to guide the downstream or second dispenser unit which may have a runner shell sliding on the inside of said guide shell. Where the runner shell directly engage sbetween two codirectional guide shells, these may instead freely protrude counter the flow direction and be provided on the second dispenser unit. Thus highly precise guidance and a labyrinth-type sealed closure of the dispenses inner space is achieved by these housing shells. In addition, catch members for blocking may be protectedly located between the guide shells or in the gap between a guide shell and the runner shell.
The reception or hold for the reservoir may be located totally within a shell into which the reservoir tray or dish then protrudes without contact. All three housing shells may thus permanently entirely surround the reservoir chamber and protect this chamber from deformation due to compressive stress from without. The catch action may prevent the units from being pulled apart and separated axially or from being mutually twisted. Thereby withdrawal may be facilitated in overcoming a snap-action force in one rotary position but prevented in another rotary position even against considerably higher withdrawal forces or made possible only by destruction. The first or the second unit may be centrically symmetric in all cross-sections.
Deviating therefrom the second unit may comprise transverse lugs directed away from each other. These lugs protrude as sole portions of the second unit radially beyond the outer circumference of the first unit and each serve as an actuating handle for resting a users finger during manual operation of the dispenser, namely in shortening it. The runner shell may directly and integrally adjoin the inside of these lugs and form a slightly widened continuation of an outermost stud shell of the second unit. An inner stud shell is located within the outer stud shell and may form a spike for opening the reservoir closure on the working stroke. The slimmer stud shell bounds the outlet duct. Both stud shells commonly bound the medium outlet.
The dispenser may consist of but two components, each of which is in one piece, and into which merely the reservoir, for example a blister, needs to be inserted. Releasable blocking means for preventing accidental actuation may be in one part with one of these units while blocking the other unit by abutting on an end face. The locking member is either turned or torn off to release actuation of the working stroke. A suitably high axial actuation force for the working stroke may also release the locking member and thus result in a high actuating tension on commencement of the working stroke.
The dispenser is particularly suitable for discharging biological active substances, such as biochemical expedients or remedies capable of controlling or supporting the medicinal effect of pharmaceutical active substances, e.g. by delaying release of the drug, by improving resorption or the like without it itself needing to have a direct pharmacological effect. The substances may also be peptides, proteins and or hormones, e.g. steroid hormones, polypeptide or proteo hormones or releasing hormones. Examples are oxytocin, vasopressin, insulin, glucagon, parathormon, calcitonin, thyroid hormones, catechol amines, acetylcholine, prostaglandins or the like. In addition the dispenser is suitable for discharging adjuvants such as a Freund adjuvant which when applied in conjunction with an antigen non-specifically amplifies the response of the patients immune system or alters the nature of the immune response and may contain aluminum compounds, mineral oils or inactivated mycobacteria. Such pharmacokinetic drugs may also enhance the effect of some other medicine.